The Adventure of the Three Garridebs
"The Adventure of the Three Garridebs" is a Sherlock Holmes short story by the British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Its first publication was in the United States in the October 25, 1924 issue of Collier's Weekly Magazine. It was published again in the January 1925 issue of the British magazine The Strand and in the 1927 anthology The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes. The plot is set in motion when a man called Nathan Garrideb writes to the private detective Sherlock Holmes to ask for assistance in finding another man whose surname is also Garrideb. Nathan Garrideb has been approached by an American called John Garrideb. According to John Garrideb, both men stand to inherit a third of some land in Kansas worth fifteen million dollars. They can only claim this property, however, if they can find another man with the surname Garrideb who will inherit the other third. When Sherlock Holmes meets John Garrideb, the detective soon realizes that the entire story about property in Kansas is a lie. The story has been adapted for television and radio. Plot One morning in June 1902, the brilliant consulting detective Sherlock Holmes tells his friend Dr. Watson that he can earn some extra money if he knows anyone with the surname Garrideb. Watson has never heard that surname before but, when he looks in the telephone book, he finds a listing for N. Garrideb of 132 Little Ryder Street, West London. Holmes tells Watson that N. Garrideb, whose name is later revealed to be Nathan Garrideb, is the client who wrote to him in the hope of finding another man called Garrideb. Shortly afterwards, the housekeeper Mrs. Hudson arrives with the business card of a man who is waiting to see Holmes. It is the card of an American lawyer from Kansas called J. Garrideb. Watson is excited to have found another Garrideb. Holmes informs him that John Garrideb of Kansas is also already involved in the case, although Holmes had not expected to meet him so soon. John Garrideb appears angry that Nathan Garrideb has contacted Sherlock Holmes. He calms down after Holmes reassures him that he was only asked to find a third man called Garrideb, not to investigate John Garrideb's background. For the benefit of Watson, John Garrideb is persuaded to tell the whole story. According to John Garrideb, Alexander Hamilton Garrideb of Kansas made a fortune in real estate and on the Chicago stock exchange. He purchased land the size of an English county which is good for all kinds of farming, rich in minerals and valued at fifteen million dollars. Alexander Hamilton Garrideb had no known relatives and reveled in his unusual surname. A year before he died, Alexander Hamilton Garrideb met John Garrideb. He was very excited to meet someone else with the same highly uncommon surname and asked John Garrideb to find other people who also shared it. John Garrideb said that he was too busy to do that. After Alexander Hamilton Garrideb died, John Garrideb found out that he had been left a third of his property. However, he would only inherit that land if he could find two other adult men called Garrideb. Those men would inherit the other two thirds. After having looked all over the United States and found no other Garridebs, John Garrideb came to England and found the listing for Nathan Garrideb in the London telephone book. Nathan Garrideb has no living male relatives. It is still necessary to find a third man called Garrideb before either John or Nathan Garrideb can claim their fortunes. Holmes asks John Garrideb why he has not placed any advertisements in the newspapers asking for other Garridebs to come forward. The American replies that he already did so but received no replies. Before john Garrideb leaves, Holmes says that he knew another man from Kansas, the recently deceased former Mayor of Topeka Dr. Lysander Starr. On hearing this, John Garrideb says, "Good old Dr. Starr!" He goes on to say that the late mayor has not been forgotten in Topeka. After John Garrideb leaves, Holmes remarks that almost everything the man said was a lie. According to Nathan Garrideb's letter, John Garriden has only recently arrived in England. Holmes does not doubt that John Garrideb is a real American but his clothes were obviously all purchased in England and are at least a year old. His accent also indicates that he has been in London for some time. Sherlock Holmes always reads the personals sections in the newspapers and is well aware that there have been no advertisements in any of the papers asking for people called Garrideb to come forward. Holmes adds that there never was a Mayor of Topeka called Dr. Lysander Starr but John Garrideb failed to notice that. Watson telephones Nathan Garrideb. The man asks to speak to Sherlock Holmes. It is arranged that Watson and Holmes will visit him that evening. The building where Nathan Garrideb lives is a boarding house for single men. Nathan Garrideb has rented a room there for about five years. He is an old man who almost never goes out. His room resembles a museum. It contains glass cases full of insect specimens, fossils, primitive tools and ancient coins. There are also plaster copies of the skulls of prehistoric men. Nathan Garrideb says that none of the items in his collection are worth a great deal of money and he does not have any reason to fear burglars. The old man says that he has no wish to move to Kansas. He would not have to, however, because John Garrideb has offered to purchase his third of the land for five million dollars. Nathan Garrideb intends to use the money to establish a real museum and bequeath it to the nation. John Garrideb arrives with a local newspaper from the city of Birmingham in central England. The newspaper carries an advertisement headed "Howard Garrideb constructor of agricultural machinery". John Garrideb says that has made an appointment for Nathan Garrideb to see Howard Garrideb at four o'clock on the afternoon of the following day. Nathan Garrideb does not want to travel to Birmingham. It has been many years since he has made such a long journey. Johnn Garrideb persuades him that Howard Garrideb is more likely to believe a distinguished British gentleman than a "wandering American with a wonderful tale" and Nathan Garrideb agrees to go. After John Garrideb has left, Sherlock Holmes says that he would like to have good look at Nathan Garrideb's collection because he may learn something from it that will come in useful in a future case. He adds that he does not have time to look at it at present and asks if he can come back and look at it at four o'clock the next afternoon. Nathan Garrideb gives his permission and says that he will make arrangements with the building's caretaker, Mrs. Saunders, to let in Holmes. Before leaving, Holmes asks Nathan Garrideb the name of the agency from which he rents his room. Sherlock Holmes later asks Dr. Watson if he noticed anything unusual about the advertisement headed "Howard Garrideb constructor of agricultural machinery". Watson says that he thought he saw an incorrectly spelled word in it. Holmes clarifies that the American spelling "plows" was used instead of the British spelling "ploughs". Holmes goes on to say that references to buckboards and artesian wells make the advertisement appear more like an American one than one from a provincial British newspaper. Watson concludes that the advertisement is a fake created by John Garrideb. Holmes comments that John Garrideb obviously wants to get Nathan Garrideb out of his room the following afternoon. The following morning, after having looked at mug shots at Scotland Yard, Holmes discovers that John Garrideb's real name is James Winter but he is better known as "Killer" Evans. He is a native of Chicago but has been living in England for ten years. He was convicted of killing another American criminal in Britain, a forger called Rodger Prescott. He only served five years in prison because it was established that Prescott attacked him first. He was released two years ago. Holmes has also been to the agency from which Nathan Garrideb rents his room. Although he called himself Waldron, the man who previously rented Nathan Garrideb's room matched the physical description of Rodger Prescott. Holmes and Watson, both carrying revolvers, are let into Nathan Garrideb's room at four o'clock. They then hide. An hour later, "Killer" Evans arrives. He uses a crowbar to lift up some floorboards and, holding a lighted candle, goes underneath them. Holmes and Watson approach the hole that Evans has made and point their guns at him. At first, Evans pretends to surrender. He then produces a gun and fires at Watson. The bullets graze Watson's leg but he is not seriously injured. Holmes uses his gun to hit Evans on the head and takes the American prisoner. The secret basement beneath Nathan Garrideb's room is revealed to contain a printing press, paper, ink and bundles of forged banknotes. It is the secret counterfeiting workshop of Rodger Prescott, the location of which was known only to Evans. "Killer" Evans is soon sent back to prison. Nathan Garrideb never fully recovers from the shock he receives when he finds out that Evans was playing him for a fool. He has to go to live in a nursing home soon afterwards. Adaptations "The Adventure of the Three Garridebs" was the first Sherlock Holmes story to be adapted for television. An adaptation. starring Louis Hector as Sherlock Holmes and William Podmoore as Dr. Watson, first aired on NBC in the United States on November 27, 1937. "The Mazarin Stone", the sixth episode of the Granada TV series The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes which first aired on the ITV network in the United Kingdom on April 4, 1994, is an adaptation of "The Adventure of the Three Garridebs" and "The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone". Sherlock Holmes himself (played by Jeremy Brett) makes only a brief appearance. at the start of the episode, he announces that he is going to Scotland to continue pursuing another case over which he has been obsessing. After Holmes has gone, Dr. Watson (played by Edward Hardwicke) is approached by Agnes and Emily Garrideb, the sisters of Watson's former university lecturer Nathan Garrideb. The two women already have their suspicions about the man calling himself John Garrideb who has told their brother he stands to inherit five million dollars. Meanwhile, Sherlock Holmes brother MycroftThe character of Mycroft Holmes only appears in three of the fifty-six canonical Sherlock Holmes short stories, "The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter" (1893), "The Final Problem" (1893) and "The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans" (1903). However, he appears in four episodes of the Granada TV Sherlock Holmes series, "The Greek Interpreter" (1985), "The Bruce-Partington Plans" (1988), "The Golden Pince-Nez" (1994) and "The Mazarin Stone" (1994). (played by Charles Gray) is approached by the British government to investigate the theft of one of the Crown jewels, a diamond called the Mazarin Stone. The two cases ultimately prove to be connected. Before he was murdered, the skilled jeweler Rodger Prescott rented part of the Garridebs' house. After he disappeared, Nathan Garrideb took over his room. James Winter (alias John Garrideb) wants to get Nathan Garrideb out of the way so that he can access Rodger Prescott's secret jeweler's workshop beneath the room. He plans to cut the stolen Mazarin Stone there. A radio adaptation of "The Adventure of the Three Garridebs", starring Clive Merrison as Holmes and Michael Williams as Watson, first aired on BBC Radio 4 in the United Kingdom on October 16, 1994. In the adaptation, Watson immediately realizes that there never was a Mayor of Topeka called Dr. Lysander Starr. He recognizes the name as a variation on that of Colonel Lysander Stark, a murderer and counterfeiter who appears in "The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb". Holmes later remarks that, in some respects, "The Three Garridebs" case resembles that of "The Red-Headed League". Footnotes External links *Quotations from "The Adventure of the Three Garridebs" on Wikiquote. *"The Adventure of the Three Garridebs" on Baker Street wiki. Category:Mystery Category:Detective Category:Short Stories Category:Famous Category:Classic